The present invention relates to a stabilizing system for an image-producing means.
Operating equipment, e.g., cameras, from non-stable platforms such as aircraft, naval craft, swaying masts, or the like, raises problems of stabilization: in order to keep the payload steady, it has to be mounted on a device controlled by motion sensors that will move in opposition to the movement of the platform, thereby canceling out the platform""s movement and stabilizing the equipment. The movement of such platforms can be resolved into three axes, known in traditional naval terminology as the yaw, pitch and roll axes.
Existing stabilizers are not only complex pieces of machinery, but also, in certain situations, e.g., when the camera is dipped by an angle of 90xc2x0, the roll axis becomes co-linear with the yaw axis, becoming redundant and precluding roll stabilization. This is due to the kinematic chain of prior art stabilizers, which follows the scheme: yawxe2x86x92pitchxe2x86x92roll. In other words, compensatory yaw affects both pitch and roll; compensatory pitch affects roll but not yaw, while compensatory roll has no effect on either yaw or pitch.
It is therefore one of the objects of the present invention to provide a stabilizing system that is relatively simple and comparatively inexpensive, and that is based on a kinetic chain free of redundancies and deficiencies.
According to the invention, the above object is achieved by providing a stabilizing system for an image-producing means operated on a non-stable platform, said system comprising a yaw axis attachable at one of its ends to said platform; an angularly bent arm comprising two limbs, to the first of which limbs the other end of said yaw axis is fixedly attached; a front roll axis mounted on, or integral with, said first limb; lateral structures rigidly linked by a connecting member and at least indirectly supported by said bent arm, between which lateral structures said image-producing means can freely perform a pitching movement; at least one pitch axis supported by at least one of said lateral structures; a rear roll axis fixedly attached to said connecting member and freely passing through the end portion of the second one of the limbs of said bent arm; said front roll axis and said rear roll axis being parallel, said front roll axis being positioned at a point above said lateral structures; a cross member pivotably mounted on said front roll axis, and at least one upright at each end of said cross member, one end of said upright being pivotably mounted on said cross member and its other end being articulated to one of said lateral structures, wherein said cross member and said uprights define a portal facilitating the unobscured passage of light.